Georgia lawmaker calls JD Vance a ‘sell out,’ and a triumph for ‘angry jerks everywhere’

ATLANTA — With JD Vance being named as former President Donald Trump’s new running mate in his bid to take back the White House, the current Ohio Senator is coming under even more scrutiny.

It didn’t take long for news agencies across the spectrum to bring up past comments that Vance had made about Trump – most of them not very flattering.

In leaked text messages, Vance wondered if Trump was ‘a cynical a****e like Nixon’ or rather ‘America’s Hitler.’

The Georgia lawmaker who leaked that message is now taking credit for it.

While Vance was receiving praise on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Monday, his former roommate, Georgia state Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Democrat, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to take credit for that leaked message and called Vance a “sellout”

McLaurin said Vance was his roommate in law school.

“Obviously he’s a sellout, but the bigger deal is he’s angry and vindictive. The perfect fit for Trump’s revenge. JD’s rise is a triumph for angry jerks everywhere,” McLaurin wrote.

McLaurin spoke to Channel 2′s Richard Elliot on Tuesday, saying he hadn’t spoken to Vance since 2016, the year Trump first won the election, and said Vance didn’t have a very high opinion of Trump.

“He was very negative about Trump at the time. I mean, if you’ve seen his texts that I published, he basically said he was the fruit of the Republican’s collective neglect,” McLaurin said. “JD is just not the pick if you’re trying to reassure the people. He is the pick if you’re trying to double down on Trumpism, the MAGA brand of kind of hating your political opponent.

In a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose while promoting his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance called himself “a Never Trump guy” and said of the soon-to-be-president, “I never liked him.”

He went on to call the GOP nominee a “terrible candidate.”

He told NPR that year, “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” He wrote an op-ed for The New York Times titled: “Mr. Trump Is Unfit For Our Nation’s Highest Office.”

But by the time Vance launched his campaign for the Senate in 2021, his views were closely aligned with Trump’s. He met with the former president and quickly won his endorsement, gaining a crucial boost in the Republican primary.

Vance has said he “was wrong” about Trump. In an interview this month on Fox News Channel, he was asked to explain his past criticism.

“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,” Vance said. “He was a great president. And it’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.”

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As Vance’s name rose to the top of Trump’s list of potential running mates, he notably embraced positions that contrast with former Vice President Mike Pence, telling ABC News in an interview that he would not have immediately certified the results of the 2020 election.

He’s also said he was “truly skeptical” that Pence’s life was in danger on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and called the bipartisan committee that investigated the attack “a sham.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, once considered a potential Trump running mate as well, described Vance as “a major asset” on the ticket whose evolution on Trump would ultimately help him connect with swing voters.

“He’s also somebody who can say, ‘You know what, in 2016, I may not have voted for Donald Trump either, but here’s why I am with him to the fullest today,’” Ramaswamy said.

Gov. Brian Kemp said Vance can help the Trump ticket.

“The guy’s a U.S. senator, so he’s obviously versed on foreign policy. He’s versed on domestic issues here in this country and obviously sees eye to eye with President Trump,” Kemp told Elliot.

Trump’s team now has less than four months to strengthen Vance’s profile in the states that matter most this fall.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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